Indian whisky is traditionally made from sugarcane molasses- not exactly the ingredient recommended by the Scottish Whisky Association. As a result, Indian whiskies are not classified as whisky in Europe, and in turn India applies an exorbitant duty on foreign whiskies.
However, there are still 2 distilleries in India that produce single malt whisky to the strict regulations of the Scottish Whisky Association. The first, and more popular, of them is Amrut Distillers based out of Bangalore. Now don’t get your hopes too high- Amrut single malt is available only in Bangalore and nowhere else in India. You could easily spot it in European markets though. Thus the irony is that Indian fans of single malt find it very difficult to procure a bottle of Amrut.
Amrut consistently gets rave reviews by foreign reviewers though, and a look at their collection shows that this is a distillery that is constantly experimenting and innovating- for which I give full marks. For example, take a look at two of their recent offerings:
- Amrut Fusion - single malt distilled from barley taken from both Scotland and India!
- Amrut Kadhambam - matured in three different casks- Bangalore Blue Brandy, rum and oloroso sherry.
Personally though, I’d love to get my hands on their Peated Cask Strength (63% ABV) and Peated offerings, though Master of Malt lists both as discontinued.
The second Indian distillery in the business of single malts is the Paul Distillery based out of Goa, established in 1992 by a Paul P. John. Their single malts are distilled in traditional copper pot stills, are un-chill filtered and un-coloured. Their single malt was also awarded 94 points by Jim Murray for his Whisky Bible 2014, and another expression received 96.5 points. I will have to check on my next visit to Goa whether this malt is available in stores there.
Don’t let your disdain of IMFL whiskies hold you back from grabbing a bottle of these Indian malts if you ever spot them. And send me a bottle to!